Idlis and Dosais/Dosas are the most common and popular breakfast snacks of south india and especially tamilnadu. The soft and fluffy quality of Idlis or the crispy crunchy texture of Dosais – all depends on the perfect consistency of the batter. Par boiled rice and dehusked black lentils soaked, ground and left to ferment for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight – sounds like a tedious process! But having done this, there is no problem every breakfast or dinner time or even when we come back after a tired day’s work – the batter is handy for a quick breakfast or dinner or even inbetween hunger pranks!

The ground batter is used as Idli for the first day. The second day, when the batter becomes more sour is fit for making dosais. But I make dosais out of the first day batter too. The fenugreek seeds in the batter brings out the colour of the dosais.

parboiled rice

 dehusked black gram

 Basic Idli/Dosai/Dosa Batter

Ingredients (makes approximately 50 idlis or 40 dosais)

• Parboiled Rice – 4 cups
• Dehusked Black Gram (Urad Dhal) – 1 cup
• Fenugreek Seeds – 1 tsp
• Salt – 11/2 tsp

Method of Preparation of Batter

1. Wash Urad Dhal and Rice separately until clean
2. Soak the Black Gram (Urad Dal) and Parboiled Rice in water separately for minimum 6 hours or overnight
3. Add the fenugreek seeds to the Urad Dhal before soaking
4. First, grind the soaked Dhal and fenugreek seeds
5. Use the soaked water for grinding to make a foamy batter – use only required water to make the batter foamy
6. When it comes out foamy and soft, remove it in a big vessel
7. Next, using the same soaked water, grind the rice until smooth
8. Here too, use only required quantity of water for grinding
9. Add salt to the big vessel and mix ground dhal and rice well with hand
10. Cover and leave this batter for a minimum 12 hours so that it ferments well
11. During colder temperatures, the batter can be kept in an oven at warm position overnight
12. Generally if the batter is ground in the evening hours, it is fermented and ready to make dosais or idlis next morning during summers
13. After each time of using the batter, it should be stored in the refrigerator

Stone wet grinder with batter

 well fermented foamy batter

Things to remember while preparing batter

1. The quality of ground dhal makes all the difference – it should be foamy, silky and very soft
2. Quality check – Dip your hand in water and immediately give a soft touch to the batter. If the batter doesn’t stick to your hand, it is ready and is right time to remove from grinder or blender
3. Rice should be ground smooth without any granules
4. Always mix salt to the ground dhal and rice with your hands. Body temperature helps in proper fermentation
5. Make idlis or dosais only after batter is well fermented – it should rise well.

Storage of Dosai/Dosa Batter

1. Once the batter is done and fermented, it should be stored in the refrigerator
2. Each time idli or dosai is made, take the needed quantity in a separate vessel and keep the rest back in the fridge again
3. Do not mix water to the whole batter to make the consistency better. Each time you take out the required quantity of batter, adjust water accordingly
4. While making batter in more quantities, after it is fermented and ready, mix it well from the bottom of the vessel, transfer it to two separate bowls
5. The bowl with the top part of the batter should be used later
6. The bowl with the bottom part of the batter should be used first as it may contain more of the rice paste settled at the bottom and it may make the batter thicken and sour faster
7. Once the first bowl is over, even after a couple of days, the second bowl is fresh enough to make fresh idlis like the first day batter
8. This is how my mother and grandmother uses the batter made from huge wet grinders.